no subject

He IS friendly and open, which is WHY this story reads so wrong to me, since the very notion of this plan should have anathema to him.

Dick values justice - and catching criminals and protecting innocents - over being honest. For all that the "You Have To Marry Your Target" plan was worth, it fit into the pattern of things superheroes do to protect people; they have secret identities, they spend their lives lying.

Ummm... she's already MARRIED him, I sincerely doubt she thought he was gay. Or if she did, what the hell does that say about her?

That she has serious abandonment issues and that she needs someone in her life; she didn't take that long to get into other relationship after her husbands died. That she loves Dick and that she's okay with 'no sex' being the compromise in their relationship.

If you mean the "other secrets" bit, I didn't get the slightest trace of gay subtext there

No no no, I meant their discussion in the kitchen, when she brings up the issue that he's sleeping on the couch and maybe they should see a marriage counselor; that's when Dick starts bull-shitting his way into saying things like 'he cares about her so much that he's afraid of losing her, lalala, abandonment issues, lalala, he lost his parents when he was a child lalalala' (don't ask me to make sense out of that scene) and Emily is immediately understanding and suddenly drops entirely the idea of a marriage counselor. I don't think there's gay subtext there either, and all I can do when I read it is wonder why on earth she doesn't acknowledge the possibility that her new husband who apparently never touched her might be gay.

I found it easier to imagine that Emily was having issues with sex so soon after the loss of ANOTHER husband (though clearly NOT with marriage) and Dick was using that to come across as being solicitous to her feelings.

I like this idea, but it's negated by Emily being the one to suggest they see a marriage counselor since they don't sleep together. I'm not sure if she actually says "sex", but the not-sharing-a-bed thing bothers her quite a lot.